What Makes You Vulnerable To Work-related Stress?

Monday morning, you come to the office and you already have a lot of paperwork to do. And on days when that’s not the case, your boss is in a bad mood or your co-workers have set things up and you have lots of extra work to do. You start to get more nervous and anxious because you can not get all your projects started or because you think you will get a job that no one else wants to do. You feel stuck and overwhelmed, and end up in a crisis situation. In the end, you somehow manage to complete everything, without really knowing how. But then comes the next day and you suffer a new setback that gives you even more work-related stress.

Work-related stress is a set of emotional, cognitive, physiological and behavioral reactions to negative or harmful aspects of the content, organization or environment of your job. By cognitive reactions we mean the thoughts or the internal dialogue that runs through the head. Physiological reactions refer to the bodily changes, such as an increase in heart rate.

Stress is part of adapting to the demands of your workplace. Initially, it can help you deal with these demands, but it becomes a problem when it disrupts your performance and produces high levels of straightening and anxiety. The situation is overwhelming and you feel you can not handle it.

Whether or not you suffer from this type of stress depends on a variety of factors, including situations that depend on the workplace and the work environment. However, there are also personal traits that can make you vulnerable to work-related stress. Knowing what these are will help you manage and prevent it.

There are many organizational factors that can produce stress. These include schedules, shifts, physical conditions, salary, associated risks, poorly defined roles and hierarchy, among others.

If the job requires you to maintain a fast pace or a high level of attention for more than half the working day, you are more likely to produce stress. The same applies if the tasks are very repetitive for more than half the working day.

If your job is driven by shifts, it can also influence the emergence of work-related stress. The sectors most commonly associated with this phenomenon are healthcare, veterinarians, social services, transport, communications, public administration and education.

A study conducted by the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA) in 2012 and 2013 reported that the following triggers work stress:

• Job security or reorganizations.
• Long hours and heavy workload.
• Harassment or threats in the workplace.
• Lack of support from co-workers and superiors.
• Little control over workplace rules

It is good to know which characteristics in the workplace influence stress. But if you are just another employee, it is difficult to change anything, unless you are the human resources manager. So now let’s look at the personal factors that can influence work-related stress, so that you can resolve the situation.

For example, if you are an avid perfectionist and very ambitious, you run a higher risk of suffering from work-related stress. This is also the case if you get too involved in your work and put in too much effort. Remember that these traits do not have to be negative in the right doses.

If you are not able to relax or if you are tense, you will also be stressed more easily. This happens even if you depend on others to make decisions, do not trust your abilities or tend to perceive your surroundings as threatening.

But there are also other influential traits. If you are introverted, so that you do not use your social support, your work situation will affect you more. If you are rigid, you will be at higher risk of conflicts, which makes you more prone to stress. This can also lead to you having poor lifestyle habits and poor nutrition.

If you see any of these traits in yourself, do not worry. If you become aware, you can work on improving them. This way, you can make life easier and avoid work-related stress and all its negative consequences.

Photos by Ryan McGuire